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Empirical Shifts in Major League Baseball Roster Management: Effects of the 1976 Labor Agreement

Author

Listed:
  • John R. Crooker

    (University of Central Missouri)

  • Christopher D. Azevedo

    (University of Central Missouri)

  • Aju J. Fenn

    (Colorado College)

Abstract

In 1976, Major League Baseball (MLB) signed a labor agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) that allowed all players to become free agents after six years of MLB experience. This agreement weakened the reserve clause that had been in place in MLB since the late 1880s. Our focus in this investigation is to empirically assess the impact of this labor agreement on the roster management of MLB teams. We use MLB team roster data from the 1951 through 2000 seasons. This allows us to split the data into 25 years before and 25 years after the labor agreement. We find statistically significant changes in roster management between these subsamples. In the theoretical section of the paper, we discuss several hypotheses explaining why teams altered roster management strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • John R. Crooker & Christopher D. Azevedo & Aju J. Fenn, 2019. "Empirical Shifts in Major League Baseball Roster Management: Effects of the 1976 Labor Agreement," Journal of Economic Insight, Missouri Valley Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 57-83.
    • Handle: RePEc:mve:journl:v:45:y:2019:i:1:p:57-83
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    Cited by:

    1. Helmut Dietl & Markus Lang & Johannes Orlowski & Philipp Wegelin, 2023. "The Effect of the Initial Distribution of Labor-Related Property Rights on the Allocative Efficiency of Labor Markets," Working Papers 398, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • Z2 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics
    • Z22 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Labor Issues

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